The concept of nationalism in discussions on a European society

ABSTRACT

In scholarship, nationalism has been found to be an integral ingredient of any sense of nationhood. In everyday public use, nationalism is used as a term of disapproval. The stubborn discursive border between the two uses of the concept of nationalism evokes questions about the historical preconditions of creating an ism concept based on the roots ‘nation’ or ‘national’. In the period often called ‘the age of nationalism’, from the French Revolution to the First World War, nationhood was essentialized in ways that did not allow nations to be explained as constructions of any ism. ‘Nationalism’ gained popularity from the 1890s onwards as a critical concept directed at ideas and actions that broke against what was seen as the legitimate role of a nation. Defining the role of nations and nationhood took place in a series of political contests utilizing the concept of nationalism. Debates on Europe and ‘European society’ created one of the contexts of these contests. In current scholarly discussion on the idea of a European society, the critique of ‘methodological nationalism’ has been targeted at the nation-state-bound notion of society. However, in much of policy-oriented research and policy planning, the references to nationalism only contain views and actions found to be reactions against globalization and European integration. ‘Nationalism’ does not apply to efforts to improve ‘our’ national and European competitiveness nor ‘our’ joint EU policies of external bordering.     

Time of death of victims found in cold water environment

Limited data is available on the application of post-mortem temperature methods to non-standard conditions, especially in problematic real life cases in which the body of the victim is found in cold water environment. Here we present our experience on two cases with known post-mortem times. A 14-year-old girl (rectal temperature 15.5 degrees C) was found assaulted and drowned after a rainy cold night (+5 degrees C) in wet clothing (four layers) at the bottom of a shallow ditch, lying in non-flowing water. The post-mortem time turned out to be 15-16 h. Four days later, at the same time in the morning, after a cold (+/- 0 degrees C) night, a young man (rectal temperature 10.8 degrees C) was found drowned in a shallow cold drain (+4 degrees C) wearing similar clothing (four layers) and being exposed to almost similar environmental and weather conditions, except of flow (7.7 l/s or 0.3 m/s) in the drain. The post-mortem time was deduced to be 10-12 h. We tested the applicability of five practical methods to estimate time of death. Henssge's temperature-time of death nomogram method with correction factors was the most versatile and gave also most accurate results, although there is limited data on choosing of correction factors. In the first case, the right correction factor was close to 1.0 (recommended 1.1-1.2), suggesting that wet clothing acted like dry clothing in slowing down body cooling. In the second case, the right correction factor was between 0.3 and 0.5, similar to the recommended 0.35 for naked bodies in flowing water.     

Dimensions of professional listening competence in the legal context

When examining listening competence researchers have been interested primarily in the listening that takes place in personal relationships. This qualitative study (N?=?113), focusing on courtroom communication and drawing on social cognitive theory (SCT), approaches listening from both theoretical and practical perspectives by examining the dimensions of professional listening competence, analyzing it from a taxonomic perspective, and examining the manner in which personal agency is used when applying professional listening competence. In addition, the role of professional listening competence in promoting well-being at work is discussed. The findings suggest that the emphasis placed on the dimensions of listening competence differs depending on whether general or professional listening competence is being examined. In the latter, the contextual dimension forms a strong basis that the other dimensions build on, whereas for general listening competence all dimensions are equally important. The agentic perspective that attorneys apply to listening functions on all taxonomic levels of listening, indicating that there is a profession-based requirement for active, self-regulated listening. The findings also indicate that attorneys’ use of personal agency and the self-regulatory mechanisms of listening lead to an elevated sense of self-efficacy, which increases their subjective sense of well-being at work.     

Using Bayes’ theorem in behavioural crime linking of serial homicide

Purpose. The study extends research by Santtila et al. (2008) by investigating the effectiveness of linking cases of serial homicide using behavioural patterns of offenders, analysed through Bayesian reasoning. The study also investigates the informative value of individual behavioural variables in the linking process. Methods. Offender behaviour was coded from official documents relating to 116 solved homicide cases belonging to 19 separate series. The basis of the linkage analyses was 92 behaviours coded as present or absent in the case based on investigator observations on the crime scene. We developed a Bayesian method for linking crime cases and judged its accuracy using cross‐validation. We explored the information added by individual behavioural variables, first, by testing if the variable represented purely noise with respect to classification, and second, by excluding variables from the original model, one by one, by choosing the behaviour that had the smallest effect on classification accuracy. Results. The model achieved a classification accuracy of 83.6% whereas chance expectancy was 5.3%. In simulated scenarios of only one and two known cases in a series, the accuracy was 59.0 and 69.2%, respectively. No behavioural variable represented pure noise but the same level of accuracy was achieved by analysing a set of 15, as analysing all 92 variables. Conclusion. The study illustrates the utility of analysing individual behavioural variables through Bayesian reasoning for crime linking. Feasible applied use of the approach is illustrated by the effectiveness of analysing a small set of carefully chosen variables.     

Evaluation of Postmortem Bacterial Migration Using Culturing and Real‐Time Quantitative PCR

Postmortem bacteriology can be a valuable tool for evaluating deaths due to bacterial infection or for researching the involvement of bacteria in various diseases. In this study, time‐dependent postmortem bacterial migration into liver, mesenteric lymph node, pericardial fluid, portal, and peripheral vein was analyzed in 33 autopsy cases by bacterial culturing and real‐time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT‐qPCR). None suffered or died from bacterial infection. According to culturing, pericardial fluid and liver were the most sterile samples up to 5 days postmortem. In these samples, multigrowth and staphylococci were not or rarely detected. RT‐qPCR was more sensitive and showed higher bacterial positivity in all samples. Relative amounts of intestinal bacterial DNA (bifidobacteria, bacteroides, enterobacter, clostridia) increased with time. Sterility of blood samples was low during the studied time periods (1–7 days). The best postmortem microbiological sampling sites were pericardial fluid and liver up to 5 days after death.     

Changing definitions of Asia

The meaning of Asia has changed drastically during the millennia the concept has been in use. Its usage was established in Greek literature 2,500?years ago as a geographic reference to lands inhabited by the Greeks at the Eastern side of the Aegean Sea. Over the ensuing centuries, Asia’s Western boundary was extended to the rivers Don in the North and Nile in the South. At that time, it hardly contained any definite political or civilisational meanings. These were added to the concept in 1730 in a kind of Swedish–Russian cooperation when the Urals were redefined to form the boundary between Europe and Asia, the former starting to represent progress, and the latter its opposite. This situation has been gradually changing after World War II, when first definitions made in the United States, and later in East Asian countries have devalued the position of Europe and elevated that of Asia. Today, Asia is not a geographical concept. It is a political commonplace, used as a strong and positively loaded linguistic asset in political rhetoric in the Asian Pacific area for various kinds of regional integrative purposes.     

Understanding of and memory for a complex auditory event: an experimental case study to resolve an evidentiary issue in a trial

While many studies have focused on eyewitness’ perception and memory, few studies on earwitness’ ability to understand and remember complex sound events have been conducted. The present study included 73 participants and explored whether it is possible for children and adults to understand and later recall a complex sound event. The aim was to resolve an evidentiary issue in a trial concerning a 7-year-old child’s earwitness testimony and whether is it possible to understand a complex sound environment based solely on aural perception. The participants listened to a recording that replicated the aurally perceived situation described by the child witness in his testimony. The results showed, that adults and children could identify only a few, familiar sounds of the 16 sounds presented in free recall. They recognized the correct sounds poorly (51.9% vs. chance level of 50%): significantly better than chance only if the retention interval was immediate and the sounds could be heard clearly (57.5%). The results suggest that the participants were not able to understand what was transpiring and, thus, could not later recall the sound events. The findings highlight that understanding this kind of a complex sound event is a difficult task and that the experimental role of a witness psychologist is valuable for resolving evidentiary issues for the court. The implications for the case and the limitations of the study were discussed.     

Sentences and prosecutors’ demands for aggravated drunk driving in Finland

ABSTRACT

Sentences and prosecutors’ demands for aggravated drunk driving are categorised into three classes: The sentence is more lenient than, is compatible with, or is harsher than the prosecutor’s demand. The probability of a sentence falling into one of the three ordered categories is explained by a cumulative logit model. The following circumstances affect the probability of a more lenient or harsher sentence, in decreasing order of importance: driving a truck, facing at least four counts, having a legal assistant, and being present in the trial. The hypothesis that factors known by the prosecutor, at the time of writing the demand, should not systematically affect sentences is refuted. The judges assess circumstances differently than the prosecutors. The prosecutors’ role is nevertheless prominent in the sense that the sentences follow, to a great extent, their demands. Notable gender effects of the actors in the courtroom are found.     

Female impulsive aggression: A sleep research perspective

The rate of violent crimes among girls and women appears to be increasing. One in every five female prisoners has been reported to have antisocial personality disorder. However, it has been quite unclear whether the impulsive, aggressive behaviour among women is affected by the same biological mechanisms as among men. Psychiatric sleep research has attempted to identify diagnostically sensitive and specific sleep patterns associated with particular disorders. Most psychiatric disorders are typically characterized by a severe sleep disturbance associated with decreased amounts of slow wave sleep (SWS), the physiologically significant, refreshing part of sleep. Among men with antisocial behaviour with severe aggression, on the contrary, increased SWS has been reported, reflecting either specific brain pathology or a delay in the normal development of human sleep patterns. In our preliminary study among medication-free, detoxified female homicidal offenders with antisocial personality disorder, the same profound abnormality in sleep architecture was found. From the perspective of sleep research, the biological correlates of severe impulsive aggression seem to share similar features in both sexes.     

The Politics of Law in Mozambique: Customary Authority and Changing Premises of Legal Reform

During the last thirty years Mozambique has undergone two major processes of socio-political transformation, which have culminated in the creation of new legal systems. The first change took place atindependence in 1975, when a state-socialist system was adopted; the second came twenty years later when a liberal-democratic model was embraced. Setting out from Lotmanian semiotics,this paper analyses the political context of legal change in Mozambique. The analysis shows that the collapse of the radical project in the 1980s was linked to the new centre's failure to establish its metalanguage over the periphery, and to penetrate and transform the cultural memory of the rural population. During this period the political culture of the ruling party changed from rule-focused to expression-focused, becoming at the same time increasingly defensive and pragmatic. During the latest phase political debate has concentrated on local communities and the role of customary institutions. Both are burdened with contradictory textual memories, which the parties have failed to reconcile. However, due to its strong institutional position the ruling party has managed to maintain centralised control, albeit with an altered metalanguage to support it.